The 11th Regiment of the 12th Army of Ludendorff's Regiment launched a night attack at 1 a.m. and successfully broke through the frontal French surface position at 1:50 a.m., at this moment the German troops on the right flank of Monsacco had successfully cut into the French position, and were relying on military superiority to try to cut off the French defense, if the 11th Regiment's attack could complete the flank outflanking, it would greatly accelerate the process of the battle.

However, when the 11th Regiment had just routed the French defenders on the slope and was about to seize the town in front of them, there was an unsettling roar of machines in the darkness, and the pursuing German troops were immediately attacked by a barrage of bullets gushing out of the darkness on both flanks.

Dozens of tongues of fire erupted in the darkness, completely blocking the route of the German army's attack, and what surprised them even more was that the army's fierce counterattack into the darkness did not have any counter-effect at all, even the fierce counterattack of the heavy machine gun team did not have the slightest suppressive effect...... Instead, they were all overturned by the opponent's counterattack!

It wasn't until ten minutes later that the mortar company of the 11th Regiment coordinated the attack to follow, and the explosion of a shell into the darkness lit up the dark night sky, and the artillery fire was exposed in front of the Germans, a scene that surprised them...... At least twenty or more strange armored combat vehicles have been outflanked from the left flank to the flank of the 11th regiment, and they are firing as they march, and the whole thing is like a large, elliptical body, and a small-caliber cannon is impressively visible!

Although this steel monster is quite different from the CK and Leopard tanks equipped by the German armored division, the commander of the 11th regiment, von ? Lieutenant Colonel Wolf still identified the opponent's strength at the first time, and there was no doubt that this was a type of tank that the British and French forces had just put into the battlefield. Although the appearance is quite different. But the three major attributes of armor, machine guns, and artillery. The other party is not lacking in anything!

"Report immediately to General Ludendorff and request immediate reinforcements from the Panzer Division!" Lieutenant Colonel Wolf immediately made his decision, the 11th Regiment's nearly 2,000 soldiers, in the previous assault and the previous encounter, had lost nearly half of the troops, it was completely impossible to stop an Anglo-French army with a large number of tanks, and less than twenty minutes after the dispatch of the signal corps, the German soldier who graduated from the historic Berlin Higher Military Academy died on the battlefield in front of the town along with most of the German soldiers of the 11th Regiment.

1:55 a.m. At the time when the 11th Regiment was almost completely wiped out, Lieutenant General Ludendorff had already resolutely dispatched two armored brigades under the command of the 2nd Panzer Division, which he was the killer weapon, with a total of 70 CK tanks and 45 Earhart armored vehicles. Major General Ulrich couldn't wait to personally lead the army to attack.

However, the tank battle that Ludendorff and Ulrich were looking forward to was surprisingly not carried out as scheduled, tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides were fighting desperately around dozens of vital strategic points, and the German army had the participation of armored forces on the battlefield, which in fact caused great pressure on the British coalition forces, and the fatal flaw that it was impossible to deploy large-caliber artillery on the positions of the British and French coalition forces. This made it possible for German tanks to carry out almost any military strike except for the inability to climb the hills with poor terrain.

So. When the main force of Ulrich's 2nd Panzer Division arrived at the 11th Regiment at 2:15 a.m., it was already under the command of the French Fourth Army, Georges Brown. Nivelle's new reconfigured Defence Force occupied it, but the French Guard, which numbered less than 1,000 men, was almost instantly crushed by the 2nd Panzer Division, so much so that Ulrich could not determine the direction of the Frenchman's escape.

Subsequently, the 2nd Panzer Division continued to make a detour in the direction of Monsako, but unexpectedly did not encounter any resistance, which made Major General Ulrich a little worried, according to the 11th Regiment report, the opponent is a strong British and French tank force enough to fight the 2nd Panzer Division, if the opponent is allowed to copy the rear road of Ludendorff's army, the situation will really be difficult to clean up.

It was not until 4 a.m., when Ludendorff sent two regiments of infantry to replace the 11th Regiment, which had almost all of them killed, that he received confirmation that the opponent's armored forces did not seem to be infiltrating his own side, and that the command had ordered the 2nd Panzer Division to follow and flank the left flank.

The morning light of September 22 did not bring bright sunshine, but a head-splitting shower turned the entire Mensacco battlefield into a quagmire, and the soldiers of both armies desperately tried to consolidate their positions before dawn despite the troubles caused by the heavy rain, or threw more grenades and charged at the close enemy......

The heavy rain also brought a small trouble to the observation of the former enemy on the entire battlefield, and an inexplicable excitement swept through the whole body of Major General Ulrich, because, in the hazy morning mist, the forward of the 13th and 14th regiments, which were attacking in a roundabout way, suddenly encountered the Anglo-French armored corps that was attacking from the woods...... And the troops that served as the vanguard of the German army naturally understood what to do!

The first steel war of this era broke out on a cotton field 4.6 kilometers east of Mensako's main position, and the black of the broken cotton stalks covered the entire plain, and the retreating German infantry ran from the side of the 8 tanks of the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Panzer Division advancing in parallel, and then immediately chose to advance with the Earhart armored vehicles immediately behind.

Major Hank, the commander of the tank regiment, looked around on the observation position set up on the top of CK01 with a serious expression, the infantry withdrawn from the front had brought the most important news, the enemy was close at hand, but what was the opponent who had never met before? What kind of armament do you have? That's what he cares about most!

"Report, Major, 40 degrees to the left, behind the woods, there is an enemy shooting at our retreating soldiers!" The gun marksman suddenly reminded Major Hank loudly.

With the retreat of the German army on the entire battlefield, at least more than ten firefighting points have been formed, which are the staggered firepower points arranged by the 13th Regiment for alternate cover, in order to delay the pursuit of the opponent, and this can greatly confuse the opponent and obtain a valuable opportunity to escape in the case of poor vision.

Major Hank immediately poked out half of his head, although the observation hiding in the tank was safe, but the vision was really a little awkward, as a commander, he must have full decision at any time, and just a few seconds later, he immediately made a decision to plant a blue flag behind his tank...... This is the command style that the armored forces stole from the Navy, and in the era when there were no on-board radios, the command of armored combat vehicles, apparently, could not rely on roaring!

Major Hank's tank suddenly spewed out a thick puff of black smoke from the back, increased the horsepower to deflect the direction, thinking about the left flank to accelerate the march, and the other tanks that were advancing with him just now also immediately observed the commander's intentions, and launched a two-wing advance formation to quickly pounce on the right flank of the grove thousands of meters away, Major Hank's goal was ...... Apparently not rushing into the woods, but occupying the small slope next to the grove.

2000 m ...... 1500 m ...... 1000 m ......

Due to the muddy ground, the tank advanced at full speed at a speed of less than 15 kilometers per hour, and the 8 tanks of the 2nd Panzer Regiment swooped straight over, which seemed to be a short distance, but it took more than ten minutes, and in the misty drizzle, there was still movement behind the woods, but there was no reaction at the moment.

Rumble...... With a loud bang, a small cloud of black smoke suddenly rose from the front of the tank driven by Major Hank, and Major Hank, who had already drilled into the tank, was also buzzed by the ears of this explosion that was close at hand, and the tank also jumped violently in an instant, but it was obviously unharmed, and the iconic 2cm-wide air intake on the left wing of the CK tank immediately poured into a thick cloud of black smoke, obviously, the other party was firing at himself!

"Major, 60 degrees to the left, the tanks of the French ......" At the same time, the soldiers, who were engrossed in the machine gun position, loudly reported.

"Leave them alone, hurry up and seize the slopes!" Major Hank gave the order, and at the same time pounced on the left lookout hole, less than 2,000 meters away on the side of the woods, more than a dozen strange-looking enemy tanks, but obviously larger than the CK tanks, appeared, even the drizzle did not prevent him from carefully observing the opponent.

Although it was not very clear, the other side was rather strange to install a cannon and a weapon that could be a heavy machine gun on the side box, and the other party obviously saw his actions and realized that the two sides were going to engage in an unprecedented battle of steel, so they formed several horizontal formations and began to rush towards them.

However, the oddity of the Anglo-French tanks was the gun embellishments mounted on the flanks, which made it necessary for them to move forward at an angle of about 30 degrees before they could use the gun to attack targets directly in front of them...... The gun of this CK tank is mounted on the top of the gun enclosure, which does not have this problem at all...... This made Major Hank frown, God knows what the British, Frenchmen think.

Another problem that made Major Hank scratch his head even more was that the one who shot at him just now was obviously the British and French tank that rushed to the front at the moment, and the other side's gun barrel was still emitting black smoke outside, but at this moment, the distance between the two sides was not less than 2500 meters, although they did not know the caliber of the other party's artillery, but it was completely within the range of the 60mm and 35B double-diameter short-barreled guns of the CK tank.

However, Major Hank, who was already well acquainted with CK tanks on the battlefield, knew very well that the hit rate of a tank moving at full speed, especially a tank moving on such uneven fields, was far more unreliable than that of naval guns!

The problem is that the opponent's shot is obviously close at hand, and the accuracy is extremely high! (To be continued......)